Find everything you need to know about becoming a student in the Comparative Literature Department.

We host movie nights, conversation hours and other events. Please see calendar of events for times and dates.

Compass is a club organized by our comparative literature graduate students. The students participate and coordinate a variety of conferences throughout the year. For more information please see the graduate link.

Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai, China. He published prize-winning poetry, translation and criticism in Chinese in the eighties, and became a member of the Chinese Writers’ Association. In 1988, he came to the United States as a Ford Foundation Fellow, started writing in English, and obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Washington University.

He is the author of Death of a Red Heroine (2000), A Loyal Character Dancer (2002), When Red Is Black (2004), A Case of Two Cities (2006), Red Mandarin Dress (2007), The Mao Case (2009), Don’t Cry, Tai Lake (2012), Enigma of China (2013), Shanghai Redemption (2015), and Becoming Inspector Chen (in French and Italian, 2016 and 2017) in the critically acclaimed, award-winning Inspector Chen series; a collection of linked stories Years of Red Dust (first serialized in Le Monde, 2010); three poetry translations, Treasury of Chinese Love Poems (2003), Evoking T’ang (2007) and 100 Classic Chinese Poems (2010); and his own poetry collections, Lines Around China (2003) and Poems of Inspector Chen (2016).

Qiu’s books have sold over two million copies worldwide and have been published in 20 languages. He currently lives in St. Louis with his wife and daughter.

The event will include readings by Qiu and a conversation with Nicholas Allen, Franklin Professor of English and director of the Willson Center. It is presented as the Department of Comparative Literature’s annual Betty Jean Craige Lecture. Betty Jean Craige is University Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and a former director of the Willson Center.

The Global Georgia Initiative presents global problems in local context with a focus on how the arts and humanities can intervene. The series is made possible by the support of private individuals and the Willson Center Board of Friends.